How We Work with Businesses

When you’re running a business, you have a lot of things to focus on. Two huge priorities are:

Increasing revenue (strategic in nature)

Decreasing expenses (operational in nature)

This program focuses on the revenue side of the equation. How can we help you access information that helps you make more strategic decisions around increasing revenue?

Business owners say they prefer this program because it fits well into their busy schedules and exposes them to new ideas and high-end tools. Most, if not all, of your work with this team will be done by phone and through secure web tools. This team has been specially trained to engage with companies like yours virtually and to make the most of the short time they are assigned to you.

The centerpiece of this technique is the Business Intelligence Team (BIT) – a team of research specialists assigned to work with you to sort out things you need more information about.

The lineup of experts includes:

Team Leader: Coordinates all activities and stays connected with you through the process,

The team has a set number of hours, typically about 40 combined, that they can spend on your project and have built their assignments to fit into that timeframe. Typically, there is no charge to you for any of these services, and the cost for this pilot program is covered by a pool of funds provided by regional and state organizations invested in building a strong business ecosystem in our state.

Here’s a quick look at the process and what you should expect after we meet with you:

You fill out a short profile and company survey to help the team get familiar with your company.

Two initial calls are scheduled between you and the team leader. These calls will be about an hour long each and will be used to introduce the process and allow the team leader to work with you to identify a couple key issues or areas of interest.

A team call is then set up for about a week later and will allow the team to ask more questions about your company, explain what they do, and then identify specific research assignments you all agree should be done.

After the team call and over the following 1 – 3 weeks, the specialists will send information from their assignments and call to discuss the results with you. You should expect to spend 8 – 10 hours of your time during this period to interact with the team and gather this information.

When the BIT has completed assignments, the team leader will schedule a time to review results and set up a final meeting to help you organize the resources collected and consider next steps. Next steps could and should include others you want to get involved from your own team and options provided by the individuals and organizations involved in supporting you in this program.